By Abdul Adil
(AA, Al Jazeera, Wafa, NNA, The Muslim News):
GAZA
At least 38 more Palestinians were killed in relentless Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, bringing the overall death toll since last year to 45,399, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Thursday.
A ministry statement added that some 107,940 others were injured in the ongoing assault.
“Israeli forces killed 38 people and injured 137 others in three massacres of families in the last 24 hours,” the ministry said.
“Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.
Five journalists from the Al-Quds Today channel were killed early Thursday when an Israeli airstrike struck their broadcasting van near al-Awda Hospital in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, according to Palestinian officials and media reports.
The journalists were covering events at the hospital when the vehicle, marked with the word “PRESS” in large red letters, was hit.
The victims have been identified as Fadi Hassouna, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Ali, Mohammed al-Ladah, Faisal Abu al-Qumsan and Ayman al-Jadi.
The Gaza-based Government Media Office condemned the killing and urged the international community and rights groups to condemn Israeli crimes and prosecute them before international courts.
It added that the new victims have brought the tally of journalists killed by Israel in Gaza since October last year to 201.
Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif reported that al-Jadi was waiting for his wife, who was in labor with their first child, outside the hospital at the time of the attack.
Footage from the scene showed the van engulfed in flames as civil defense teams worked to recover the bodies and extinguish the fire.
The Israeli military confirmed the strike, claiming it targeted a vehicle carrying members of Islamic Jihad.
“Prior to the attack, many steps were taken to reduce the chance of harming civilians, including the use of precision weapons, aerial observations and additional intelligence information,” the military said in a post on X.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the killings, calling for accountability.
Freezing temperatures have killed three Palestinian babies in the Gaza Strip in the last 48 hours amid a deadly Israeli onslaught on the enclave, officials and local media said on Thursday.
A three-week-old baby girl lost her life in a tent encampment in al-Mawasi in the southern city of Khan Younis on Wednesday, Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, the director general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, said on his X account.
Sela Mahmoud Al-Fasih “froze to death from the extreme cold” he added.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said two other infants, aged three days and one month, have also died from cold temperatures and a lack of access to warm shelter.
The ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza has left many families without adequate shelter and resources. According to local health officials, the lack of food security among mothers is contributing to a rise in health issues among children, further straining medical facilities and emergency services.
At least 14 Palestinians, including three women and two children, were killed in fresh Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, according to medical sources.
One source said eight people were killed in a strike on a home in the Sabra neighborhood in southern Gaza City.
Three women and two children were among the victims, he added.
At least eight Palestinians were killed this evening in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City, according to local sources.
The sources reported that the Israeli occupation forces targeted a home in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood, located in the eastern part of Gaza City, resulting in the murder of the eight victims.
Four more Palestinians were killed and others injured when Israeli fighter jets hit another home in the northern town of Jabalia, another source said.
The bodies of two people were also recovered after an Israeli drone strike in northern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, he added.
According to witnesses, a Palestinian nurse was injured when Israeli forces detonated another explosive-laden robot outside Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern town of Beit Lahia.
Another explosive-laden robot was detonated outside the Al-Awda Hospital, witnesses said.
Several Palestinians were killed, and many more injured this evening—most in critical condition—after Israeli occupation forces bombed the Al-Safir Tower adjacent to Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.
Local sources reported that many of the casualties are women and children, and the number of victims could rise as a large number of people remain trapped under the rubble. Medical teams and rescue workers are unable to reach the site due to continuous Israeli bombardment in the area.
Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation army is continuing to target the surroundings of Kamal Adwan Hospital, intensifying the attack by firing artillery shells at the region. In addition to the assault on the tower, several homes in the area have been set on fire by Israeli troops.
In another incident, a Palestinian fisherman was killed by Israeli naval forces who opened fire on a group of fishermen off the coast of Nuseirat in central Gaza.
Simultaneously, rescue teams, including medical and civil defense units, managed to retrieve the bodies of five victims from the rubble of a house belonging to the Alwan family in the Yafa area of the Al-Daraj neighborhood, north of Gaza City. The house was hit by an Israeli airstrike.
Israeli artillery also targeted areas east of the town of Khuza’a in the Khan Younis district in the southern Gaza Strip, as gunfire was directed at civilians and their homes. Meantime, Israeli warplanes launched an airstrike in western Gaza City.
Two paramedics were killed today in Israeli airstrikes targeting the vicinity of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, according to local sources.
The sources reported that the airstrike hit medics Abdulmajid Abu al-Eish and Maher al-Ajrami while they were responding to emergency calls, resulting in their immediate killing.
In a separate attack, another civilian was killed after an Israeli drone dropped a bomb near the entrance to Kamal Adwan Hospital, local and medical sources reported.
In the eastern Gaza City neighborhood of al-Zaytoun, rescue teams recovered the bodies of four individuals trapped under the rubble of a house that was struck by an Israeli airstrike late last night. The strike left the area in ruins, contributing to the growing death toll in the region.
Meanwhile, in the eastern Gaza City neighborhood of Al-Tuffah, several civilians were killed or injured when Israeli fighter jets targeted a home belonging to the Hamada family on Yafa Street.
A total of ten civilians were killed and others were injured on Thursday in the Israeli occupation’s bombing of the Sabra area south of Gaza City and Jabalia al-Balad north of the Gaza Strip.
Medical sources reported that the Israelis bombed a residential building belonging to the Dahshan family in the vicinity of al-Nour Stadium in the Sabra area south of Gaza, which led to the killing of eight Palestinians, including children, and the injury of others.
Meanwhile, an Israeli reservist soldier was killed in clashes with Palestinian fighters in the central Gaza Strip, the military said on Thursday.
A military statement said the soldier was a team commander in the 551st Reserve Paratroopers Brigade of the army’s 6551st Battalion.
It, however, did not provide details about the circumstances of his death.
At least 882 Israeli soldiers have been killed and 5,524 others injured since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict on Oct. 7, 2023, according to military figures.
WEST BANK
Israel’s military has also intensified its raid on the Tulkarem refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, sending in reinforcements a day after killing eight people there. The victims include two women and a teenager.
At least 15 more Palestinians were detained in Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank, prisoners’ affairs groups said on Thursday.
A journalist from Bethlehem was among the detainees in the raids that targeted several areas across the occupied territory, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.
“The raids were marked by abuse, threats against detainees and their families, and acts of vandalism and destruction on citizens’ homes,” it added.
According to the statement, Israeli forces interrogated dozens of people in the town of Halhul, north of Hebron city in the southern West Bank.
The new arrests brought the number of Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in the West Bank since October last year to over 12,100, including those who were released after being arrested, according to Palestinian figures.
The figure does not include those arrested from the Gaza Strip whose numbers are estimated to be in the thousands.
Israeli occupation forces carried out a raid today on Madama village, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, attacking a young man and imposing restrictions on the local population.
According to Wajih Qat, the Deputy Head of the Madama Village Council, Israeli occupation forces stormed the village while firing live bullets into the air.
During the raid, soldiers physically assaulted a young man and forced shop owners to close their businesses. Additionally, the military shut down all entrances to the village, further restricting the movement of residents.
An illegal Israeli settler today grazed his sheep in Khirbet al-Tuba in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.
Local sources reported that a settler released his sheep onto the Palestinian’s agricultural lands, wreaking havoc and causing massive destruction.
Israeli occupation forces have detained at least 15 Palestinians from various areas of the West Bank since yesterday evening, continuing their ongoing crackdown on the local population.
JERUSALEM
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir forced his way into the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem on Thursday, marking a new provocation amid the ongoing war on Gaza.
Ben-Gvir entered the site under heavy police protection and toured the mosque’s courtyard, said an official with the Jordan-run Islamic Endowments Department in Jerusalem.
This was the extremist minister’s fifth visit to the flashpoint complex since he joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in 2022.
It coincided with the week-long Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which started on Thursday.
The National Democratic Alliance, an Israeli Arab party, condemned Ben-Gvir’s tour of the Al-Aqsa complex as a “deliberate provocation to the sentiments of Arabs and Muslims around all the world.”
The party called on Palestinians to intensify their presence and visits to the mosque.
Since 2003, Israel has allowed illegal settlers into the flashpoint compound on an almost daily basis with the exception of Fridays and Saturdays.
Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world’s third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area the Temple Mount, saying it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.
LEBANON
Israeli army forces staged an incursion into a strategic area in southern Lebanon on Thursday, in the latest violation of a cease-fire agreement, Lebanese media said.
Israeli forces moved into the Wadi al-Hujeir area, firing heavy-caliber machineguns during their advance in the region, the state news agency NNA reported.
The Lebanese army closed all roads leading to the area after the sudden Israeli incursion, the broadcaster said.
The Israeli raid has forced residents of the nearby Qantara town to flee their homes towards the Ghandourieh village, the NNA said.
There was no comment from the Israeli army on the report.
Lebanese authorities have reported over 300 Israeli violations since the cease-fire deal came into force on Nov. 27 in the hope of ending over 14 months of fighting between the Israeli army and the Hezbollah group.
Under the cease-fire terms, Israel is required to withdraw its forces south of the Blue Line – a de facto border – in phases, while the Lebanese army is to deploy in southern Lebanon within 60 days.
Data from the Lebanese Health Ministry indicates that since Israel’s onslaught on Lebanon began on Oct. 8, 2023, at least 4,063 people have been killed, including women, children and health workers, while 16,663 others have been injured.
YEMEN
Israeli warplanes launched a new wave of airstrikes in Yemen on Thursday evening amid rising regional tensions over Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, Israeli media said.
The strikes targeted several strategic sites in Yemen, including Sanaa airport and the port of Al-Hudaydah in western Yemen, the Israeli public broadcaster KAN said.
Yemen’s Houthi group said Israeli airstrikes targeting Sanaa International Airport on Thursday evening resulted in the deaths of two airport employees and injuries to the assistant of a UN plane’s captain.
The plane had landed to transport World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Tedros confirmed he was at the airport when it was hit by Israeli air strikes.
“As we were about to board our flight from Sana’a, about two hours ago, the airport came under aerial bombardment. One of our plane’s crew members was injured,” he wrote on X.
“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” he said, adding that the mission needs to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before they can leave.
Houthi Foreign Minister Jamal Amer condemned on X the timing of the Israeli airstrike on the airport.
He described the attack as “targeting and disregarding the UN,” as it coincided with preparations for Tedros and UN resident coordinator Julian Harnis to depart on a UN flight.
The Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah channel said fatalities in attack on the airport had risen to three with 16 injuries, while the strike on Ras Isa oil port in Al-Hudaydah resulted in one death and three people went missing.
Israel’s Channel 12 said power stations were targeted in the attacks, without providing further details.
According to Israeli Channel 13, dozens of Israeli fighter jets took part in the attacks, which coincided with a televised speech by Houthi leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi.
KAN said the US was notified before the launch of the attacks.
Following the wave of Israeli strikes on Yemen, journalist Hussain al Bukhaiti says Israel has hit these areas before because it seems it cannot “actually target any military installations in Yemen because it doesn’t have the information” on where they’re located.
“That’s why, I believe, they [keep] targeting civilian infrastructure like they did today,” Bukhaiti told Al Jazeera from Yemen.
“I believe the Yemeni army might conduct a major attack on Israel, and we have seen the attacks before. The Israeli air defence couldn’t stop some drones and hypersonic missiles. But I believe that because they have targeted Sanaa airport … Yemenis might announce an attack against an airport in occupied Palestine.”
The local 26 September website, citing a security source, said that US-UK airstrikes also targeted a control tower at Sanaa airport.
The new strikes are the fourth wave of Israeli attacks against Houthi sites in Yemen since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip since last October.
The Houthis have targeted Israeli cargo ships or those associated with Tel Aviv in the Red Sea with missiles and drones in a show of support with the Gaza Strip, where nearly 45,400 people have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war since Oct. 7, 2023.
Yemen’s Houthi group claimed Thursday to force a US aircraft carrier to retreat in the Red Sea after a drone strike.
The Yemeni website said that satellite imagery showed the US carrier moving away from Yemeni waters.
There was no immediate US comment on the Houthi claim.
On Sunday, the Houthis said that they had thwarted what they called a US-British attack on Yemen, claiming to have shot down a US F-18 fighter jet after an attack on USS Harry S. Truman and accompanying destroyers.
US Central Command (CENTCOM), for its part, confirmed that an F/A-18 fighter jet was downed over the Red Sea by “friendly fire.”
The Houthis have targeted Israeli cargo ships or those associated with Tel Aviv in the Red Sea with missiles and drones in a show of support with the Gaza Strip, where nearly 45,400 people have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war since Oct. 7, 2023.
[Photo: Journalists hold placards as they gather outside the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City to commemorate five colleagues who were killed by Israeli deliberate attacks on their xxxx Gaza on December 26, 2024. Photojournalist: Dawoud Abo Alkas/AA]
